Hope
by rise of the wizards
Summary: Gray, Juvia, Natsu, Lucy, Wendy and the two exceeds go for a little tour to a nearby town, unaware of what awaits them there...
1. Chapter 1

**CHAPTER-1 ****THE TRIP**

_prologue_

Gray was sitting above the clear, blue ocean. Well, he _was_ wearing his shirt (how? Don't ask). He's not _always _without his articles of clothing. Apparently, he forgot his old habit and was staring up at the horizon. The setting sun's light shone upon his eyes, making them look red. His hair was extremely messed up and looked like an Eagle's nest. His shirt was half torn, so maybe you could say that he was _half –stripped. _His sandals were all fine (anime magic) and there were a few cuts on his arms, feet and through his clothes. His wrists were tightly closed and he had a neutral expression upon his face. But, eyes made a sign of _hope._

* * *

Natsu, Lucy, Gray, Ezra and Juvia were going for a tour as they were exhausted of the quests that they attempted all these days and so, they needed some time to relax. Wendy had also decided to go along. Natsu was running along the way as he decided running was way better than puking in the carriage. They didn't have enough money and they needed two carriages in all. Both the carriages were filled with luggage. One carriage for Erza's luggage and one for the others' luggage. _Why didn't they get another carriage for the people to sit in?_ Good question. Apparently, in this story Lucy and Juvia are extremely superstitious and consider that three is an incredibly inauspicious number. So, they were crammed inside the carriage amid the luggage. Gray had connected the carriages to one another by making chains of ice.

Loke couldn't help himself, and with his own power, again, came out of the spirit world. Lucy became utterly angry, why did he always have to interfere?

They passed by kardia cathedral, from which a bride and a groom were coming out. The bride was looking extremely gorgeous in her beautiful wedding gown, followed by her friends holding it out from behind and laughing merrily. The groom was wearing an elegant black suit. They both made a pretty good pair to Lucy. She turned and was just saying, 'Hey Erza...' when she noticed that she wasn't there. She turned and saw Erza checking out the gown of the bride and measuring it from every angle.

Lucy ordered politely 'Stop the carriage! Now!'

She stepped out of the carriage and went towards Ezra and soon reached her. She slowly said, 'Uh...uh-a-uh... Erza'

She turned with a blank expression and replied, 'yes?'

'Do you remember where we are going?'

'To go for shopping, maybe?'

'...'

'...'

'...'

'Uh... uhm, oh, yes, we were about to go for a picnic! Lucy, why are you staring at me like fools, eh? c'mon, we're getting late!'

She grabbed Lucy's hand and dragged her along.

'Ehehehe' was her reply.

'Hey guys!' Natsu complained, 'I'm tired, let's eat something!'

'Aye! I'm hungry too!' said Happy.

'Don't worry, you both, we're about to reach the spot now, just a few minutes of waiting' said Lucy cheerfully.

'Oh! I can't wait!'

They passed through a few valleys with many ups and downs in the trip. They even passed through a small portion of desert that lies towards the east of Magnolia. They exchanged their horses with camels while travelling through the desert as the horses were exhausted.

'Ow! We could have gone to the Magnolia Resort instead of coming this far!' said Happy.

'Don't worry, Happy, we'd be able to explore new places this way!' said Wendy.

At this point, Carla said, 'Wendy's right, Happy. Well, a cat like you can never be optimistic. So maybe that's not your fault.'

'Yes, that's not ma- what? What do mean by a cat like _me_?'

'We're here' said Gray.

In front of them laid a beautiful town where people were roaming around, talking to each other, and doing lots of other stuff. From the place they were standing, they could see a board, about a hand's length, saying _Nasadoma._ There were numerous shops, all of them decorated with flowers, glittered wall hangings or other such decorating stuff. Everyone was amazed, except for Lucy; she had been here with her father for a grand ball, arranged by Mister and Misses Fernard.

'Well, now I guess you were right Wendy...'said Happy, 'we should explore new places, especially if they are like this.

**Well... this is not my first story but I have deleted the one I last wrote, so indirectly, it **_**is**_** my first story. I guess you would have liked this chapter. If you find it good, please review me and tell me how you think it is. I've decided that I'd write after it only if I get some reviews. So, please review! :) **


	2. Chapter 2 Suspicions

**I have to make some codes clear to all those who are reading or following this story. (Thanks for reviewing!)**

Codes:

" " =thoughts

' '= conversation

**Past**

**CHAPTER 2****Suspicions **

Everyone went past the board and walked into various different stores they liked. Happy dragged Carla to the fish shop muttering something about _best in the world._ Lucy went to find new clothes for herself. Erza was sneaking into the same store's wedding gowns' part when Lucy caught her and dragged her to buy tops, skirts and jeans. Surprisingly, Erza liked them. Natsu went to eat noodles in _Stella's noodles stall._ Gray was standing by the entrance board and was muttering "it was a _tour_, right?" and of course, Juvia also stayed there. "How can Juvia leave you behind like that master Gray?" said she to herself. But besides all this stalking stuff, Juvia also felt someone stalking _her. _She looked around but no one was there except Gray.

After an hour or so Gray and Juvia went to call all of them from the stores. They spotted Lucy and Erza and went to fetch them. Erza gave a sideways grin to Lucy and said 'Lucy, it's time.' Lucy smirked back.

What else? Lucy and Erza were walking and chatting like normal college students, while Gray followed them, gripping all the stuff that Erza and Lucy had bought. Juvia said, 'Oh master Gray...' but she was under strict orders of Erza not to carry any loads. 'He's a man, right?' was what she said.

Next moment, they marked Happy and Carla eating fish and the shopkeeper stared at them awestruck. Lucy guessed that maybe the shopkeeper was surprised to see talking cats with wings buying and eating fish. Kind of predictable.

Lucy and Erza went to fetch the exceeds while Gray and Juvia stayed. Apparently, Natsu appeared to pass by. Juvia again felt someone looking at her but found Natsu instead. She called up to him. Erza saw Natsu & turned towards Gray and said, 'now maybe you can share the load with Natsu',

'Hey, but why me?' Natsu said.

'Did I hear right or you want to get squashed like tomato sauce, eh?'

'Maybe you heard wrong, he he...'

Soon, they kept all the bags full of clothes (and teddy bears for Erza. Don't tell her!) into the carriage. Lucy picked up something like a map from the carriage that lay upon her wooden seat.

'Hmm...' she said. 'So we need to explore five more places in this town, first is the extinct volcano- Fijo. Second is the old haunted house. Third is the forest of medevals. Wait, what's medevals?'

Everyone stared at her blankly while she hoped for an answer. She returned to her reading.

'Fourth is a zoo and fifth is the grave of the _Nasadoma's_ founder.'

* * *

'Are they here, yet?' said a man with a very bold and ordering voice in a dark room.

'Yes sir, they are heading towards the volcano right now' said another guy, maybe the man's secretary.

'Good. That water mage should not be alive.'

* * *

They passed through the stores. Ezra was only observing the clothes store. She was not able to buy some beautiful the wedding dresses! Soon, they reached the volcano.

'What's so special in it? Why are we here to see this volcano?' inquired Gray.

'That's just because I can eat some fire!' said Natsu.

'We're not here for a feast, hothead!'

'Who are you to tell me, iceberg?'

'Ahem!' said Ezra and both Gray and Natsu stopped fighting abruptly.

'This volcano is extinct' added Lucy.

Gray smirked and Natsu gave him a sideways scowl.

'Let's go and have a look at this volcano, we can also get some igneous rocks for ourselves...'

'Why would we want some i-' Natsu was saying and stopped after watching everyone glare at him.

They moved to different areas of the volcano. Natsu was about to climb the crest of the volcano to see if fire is there or not but Lucy pulled him back. Soon, everyone reached the same spot they started from. The volcano... erupted...

* * *

**I have done changes in this chapter... hope you like this sudden eruption.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Well… sorry for writing too late. I was a bit busy these days for joining coaching classes. And I will really appreciate if you review this story of mine. And yeah… here it goes…**

"Lucy, you said that the volcano was extinct" said Happy with a shock.

"Y- Yeah! That's what's written here." she replied clutching and looking into her brochure.

"I don't know what's happening but we seriously need to do something quickly." said Gray.

The two shadowed figures were now sitting in a wooden carriage, which was not being pulled by anything, but miraculously, moving on its own.

"Well… are we there yet?" said the croaky old commanding voice again.

"Not yet, sir" said the same voice of some Lieutenant.

"How much time will it take to reach there?"

"About fifteen minutes, sir"

"Hmm"

"Ya hahaha!" said a girlish slimy voice. "So... I see, you are the only ones here… besides_ me_"

She said 'me', in a creepy, snaky tone, which made Happy shiver. She wore a … what can you say? She was wearing _feathers_ in other language. Her face was slightly blue tinted and looked as if she is about to puke. Her hair was braided and she was wearing stupid yellow bangles with popping little eyes stringing from them. "Ya hahaha"

"Who is this new… _creature_" Gray said in a disgusted voice, scanning the girl from head -to-toe.

"My name is Pearl, the princess of Malgas, the daughter Lord Iron. I knew you would probably stay behind, looking at this situation." said she.

"Iron? Seriously? Is that even a name? What came to his parents' mind?" muttered Juvia "Let's name him… Iron!" Gray smirked. She didn't know at her or at Pearl, but she still liked it. It was the first ever joke that came to her mind.

The same wooden carriage, in which the mysterious people were moving, stopped abruptly behind them. Out came an old man, around the height of Lucy, followed by a long, young looking, man. They both stood still for a moment. The old man looked around. " Sir, I think we need to do it now." Said the young man.

" Ah.. right … the water mage" said the old man.

"Juvia?" said Juvia nervously.

"Hey! What do you want with Juvia?" commanded Natsu.

The old man stared for a while and then asked, "what is it to do with _you?_"

"Well… she's our Nakama!" said Gray in an undertone. Juvia turned her head slightly towards him.

"Very well…

"A few months ago, we, the Guild Lewis, lived like you all, like a guild. We lived like a happy family, walking, chatting, laughing, going to quests for money et cetera. One day, on a happy and normal going routine, a gang of a dark guild appeared to pass by. It attacked our guild and destroyed it. We were the only survivors with two more guild mates. We fought through the circumstances and decided to move forward. Soon, we realized it was not fair to be treated this way alone… others should also feel the way we felt. We asked one of our mates to see whether _we _would win as he had the eye of divination. He saw that we could win, but a water mage of some anonymous Guild would not let it happen and stop us from doing that. So, we are here to kill _all_ the water mages we come in contact."

"What if she's _not _the water mage you are searching for?" said Erza.

"It doesn't matter, we have to kill her in order to have a safe way ahead." said Pearl.

"Well -well, isn't this overly- curious girl Titania Erza?" said the old man. "Well now, what are we waiting for? ATTACK! Stan, you take over the boys, and, Pearl, the water mage. I think I'll take on this Titania girl" said the old man.

The Pearl girl leapt over Juvia, in order to stop her from attacking. Juvia turned into water just in time and let her pass through her.

"Oh really water mage! so you can _actually _do this thing, no wonder I heard right, yahaha" said Pearl.

There, the old man controlled a banner right beside Erza to make it fly and crash into Erza but Erza requipped at time and blocked the banner right away.

"Power of titania… it's so fun!" muttered he.

Gray and Natsu stood there, right beside the volcano, looking at the Sam guy with disgust. "this guy…" started Gray. He was out of words. Sam was wearing a pink half sleeved T-shirt with white polka dots and florescent pink jerseys. He had, in each sleeve of his shirt, ping-pong balls hanging about.

"So.. what're we waiting for?" said Natsu. Both of them fired at Sam together from each side but Sam suddenly materialized two large fans (yes, the Japanese ones, wait, fans?!) and shoved the ice and fire.

"What _is_ this thing?" Gray said.

Sam made a stupid position with one of his legs poking hilariously and one of his hand above the head and the other, under the neck.

"These," he said , "are my lovely piffs, they can shove away any kind of magical stuff, even if they are metals" Natsu looked at him, shocked, and Gray muttered, "whatever" in his usual sort of bored way.

**Guess you all liked this chapter! Please please PLEASE review and tell my mistakes! I won't bite! **


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